There are numerous languages spoken in Ethiopia, but one of the main ones is Amharic. That’s the language featured on the coin below. It is the second-most widely used semitic language in the world, after Arabic, according to Wikipedia. The letters are from the Ge’ez alphabet, also a semitic language.
The numerals used to write the date on the obverse are Ethiopic (I think: I hope I’m not mixing up the various languages and number systems). From what I’ve read, the typical Ethiopian can read the date about as well as you or I, which is to say, probably not at all. They generally use Arabic numerals, like us, and the Ethiopic numerals are a traditional holdover.
Haile Selassie I became increasingly unpopular in 1973 and ’74, as parts of the country fell into drought, famine, and political unrest. A communist military junta seized power, imprisoning him and later killing him. The famine and brutality, however, continued. Things seem to be improving a little since the 1980s, though the country is still one of the world’s poorest.
You probably also know that Haile Selassie is the central figure in Rastafarianism, that super-cool Jamaican religion without which the world might never have enjoyed a single throbbing bass-line of Reggae music.
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Actually, no, I had no idea. That does explain another person's comment in a discussion on Ethiopian coins that I started at a numismatic forum (person said: "I have a nice Ethiopian coin with with Haile Selassie, with a crude hole drilled in it. Probably worn as a pendant by a Rastafarian." Thought I: "Huh?")
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